Erl-koenig
by Fenris
Summary: Centuries ago Sir Vincent Lee was a knight in the first crusade, changed during that war he had to learn to cope with becoming the antithisis of all he ever believed. And that there was more to the world than what he had known(Hard to explain, just read)


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Erl-koenig

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Wer reitet so spaet durch Nacht und Wind?

Es ist der Vater mit seinem Kind;

Er hat den Knaben wohl in dem Arm,

Er fasst ihm sicher, er haelt ihm warm.

"Mein Sohn, was birgst du so bang dein Gesicht?" –

Siehst, Vater, du den Erlkoenig nicht?

Den Erlenkoenig mit Kron' und Schweif? –

"Mein Sohn, es ist ein Nebelstreif."

"Du liebes Kind, komm, geh mit mir!

Gar Schoene Spiele, spiel' ich mit dir;

Manch' bunte Blumen sind an dem Strand,

Meine Mutter hat manch guelden Gewand."

Mein Vater, mein Vater, und hoerest du nicht,

Was Erlenkoenig mir leise verspricht? –

"Sei ruhig, bleibe ruhig, mein Kind;

In duerren Blaettern saeuselt der Wind."

"Willst feiner Knabe, du mit mir gehn?

Meiner toechter sollen dich warten schoen;

Meiner toechter fuehren den naechtlichen Reihn,

Und wiegen und tanzen und singen dich ein."

Mein Vater, mein Vater, und siehst du nicht dort Erlkoenigs

Toechter am duestern Ort? –

"Mein Sohn, mein Sohn, ich seh' es genau:

Es scheinen die alten Weiden so grau."

"Ich liebe dich, mich reizt deine schoene

Gestalt; Und bist du nicht willig, so brauch' ich Gewalt."

Mein Vater, mein Vater, jetzt fasst er mich an!

Erlkoenig hat mir ein Leids getan! –

Dem Vater grauset's, er reitet geschwind,

Er haelt in Armen das aechzende Kind,

Erreicht den Hof mit mueh' und Noth;

In seinen Armen da Kind war todt.

Wer reitet so spaet durch Nacht und Wind? Who indeed…. In these nights I no longer ride through the night. Those days have passed, and simpler times have all but faded. Am I immortal? Hardly so I can be killed just as any other of my kind can, but we can live a long time indeed. Well if you're smart. Recklessness, or stupidly 'll end unlife quick, fast, and often painfully. A nasty fate that. One I'd rather avoid to, and so far, have been doin' a decent job of it if I say so myself.

While I do live in this eternal purgatory, a perpetual darkness, or so most think. I was human once ya know, fighting for his holiness in the fist Crusade. Maybe that's why he decided ta change me, maybe it such poetic irony of damning a crusader for God amused him. I 'don know and probably won't for I haven't see him in centuries. Quite frankly I'm glad I haven't and if I 'don see him again for the rest o' my unnatural life it'll be all to soon. He took the noble name of Lee and defiled it with his on a whim. 'Twas blasphemy changing me in that war, but what can one expect from a demon old enough to have seen the rise and fall of Roman Empire?

I died then in more ways than one, and I don'na think I can even reclaim most of my former. But still I go on, enjoying some simple human things, while maintaining my position of power among vampires. I'm a cheery sort of fellow most of the time, but not usually around my own kind. A little thing like that'll get ya killed, and quickly. One'd think such brutality would've died out when in was no longer so much apart o' this age, but some things die hard. Just 'cause you no longer human don'na mean all of the human part of you nature dies. 

Reminds me of the days of old it does. Back when I was a sword-slinging crusader. When I truly was still a noble fighting in the name of God, before my fall from grace. The days where the knight Sir Vincent Lee still lived. Dutifully righteous in his beliefs and ready to fall at the blade defending them. Oh, what I naïve fool I was…I didn't even see it coming. When the "Elven King" took me. Wipe that smirk off o' your face. The Elven King is another name for Death, Thanatos, or whatever you choose to call the personification of death. I had warning I suppose, but I did'na heed it. 'Twas foolish, but would you really have believed? I don'na think most would listen to someone they knew to be insane after all! 

If only I had listened….


End file.
